


As I Sleep

by EnbyHyena (Parad0xImminent)



Series: Pidgey's Undertale AU Ficbook [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chronic Nightmares, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamtale, Gen, Lucid Dreaming, Nightmare Sans - Freeform, Rewrite from an old concept, SOUL Guardians AU, dream sans - Freeform, monsters under the bed au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 20:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parad0xImminent/pseuds/EnbyHyena
Summary: Your entire life, you've been plagued with nightmares. Medication, meditation, and warm milk have all failed you. So in a last ditch attempt, you break down and buy a dreamcatcher.What happens next is the last thing you could have expected.





	As I Sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nuggetsinabox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuggetsinabox/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Your Best Friend from Down Under](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8223134) by [EnbyHyena (Parad0xImminent)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parad0xImminent/pseuds/EnbyHyena). 

> Last night, before my friend said 'Outertale' (read: last fic, 'Starlight, Starbright') as I hadn't yet mentioned no Outcodes, they had said 'Dreamtale'. However, it just turns out that this morning I woke up and was struck with an idea to make Dreamtale work after all. This fic is a sort of honorable mention to an old fic I wrote several years ago, and the fic that it was inspired by. They'll be linked if you want to check them out, but please for the love of the Stars don't expect quality when reading my old fic--I put a lot of myself into that fic and as a result it's a poorly laid out, self-indulgent mess. The only reason I don't delete my old work is because I want to be able to honor my achievements and have something to prove that I've improved.
> 
> But hey, this is the new stuff right here, and I'm pretty proud of it. :) Please let me know what y'all think!

There was an old legend that rumored long ago, there was a war between humanity and mythical creatures known as 'Monsters'. When the Monsters lost, they were confined to servitude to humanity for all of eternity. For many generations, this continued to be the case, even after Monsterkind long faded from memory. The Monsters were still Guardians--but they did so from the shadows, rarely revealing themselves to their assigned humans unless in an emergency.

Your entire life, you'd been plagued by nightmares. Lots and lots of nightmares. Anything from the bizarre to the frighteningly realistic had you waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, on an almost nightly basis. Being a person of science, and coming from a family with a similar background, it took you awhile before you finally broke down, decided what the heck, and bought a dreamcatcher. After all, medicine and meditation hadn't worked. To your surprise, for the first few nights, it even seemed to work?

You were settling in for the night, about to turn your phone off, when suddenly an oppressive wave of energy washed over your chest. Cold, deep-seated dread settled in your being, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You sat up, glancing around when your eyes caught the dreamcatcher dangling from the ceiling fan. It was waving slightly, despite there having been nothing to have disturbed it. The gems on it winked in the moonlight that shone through your half-shut curtains. The feathers twisted and swayed, relaxed but obviously disrupted by something.

Tugging your blankets up your chest, you sat up on your knees and glanced around the room. The temptation to get up and turn on the light was high, but your fear kept you rooted to the spot. It wasn't that you were afraid of the dark so much as you were afraid of what might be in it--and while it sounded silly, it had been a lifelong fear that you never really grew out of.

You drew your feet under your blankets from the edge of the bed, and were about to flip over and just throw the whole thing over your head. But when you turned just to the side, you caught a flash of blue in your peripherals. When your gaze flitted over to it, it vanished.

Suddenly, you felt your eyes being drawn back to your dreamcatcher- and gasped as you saw it was slowly turning black. From the bottoms of the feathers and creeping upwards, inky darkness was consuming the idol. It looked supernatural, and you were beginning to wonder if maybe you were dealing with some sort of poltergeist when suddenly the 'catcher burst with a flash of light, banishing the darkness. A shrill shriek sounded, and in the darkness you see a silhouette appear. What had previously been a shadow was now a figure, revealed by whatever energy the dreamcatcher was emanating. It covered its face, hissing in what sounded like pain. Well and truly freaked out, and completely unarmed, you did what any intelligent young adult would do and threw your pillow at it.

The figure froze as the feathers encased in fluff bounced off it, before straightening up and turning around. It had to be a bit taller than you were, and a set of four tendrils sprung from its back, thrashing in what you guessed was agitation. You weren't prepared to see its face, faintly glowing in that blue color you'd seen earlier. The mouth was set in a frighteningly wide grin, singular eye piercing. And staring directly at you.  
You opened your mouth to scream. However, before you could, one of the tendrils shot forward and silenced your attempt. It was cold and something about the energy it gave off sent terror straight down to your core, making you feel on the brink of cardiac arrest; like the tar was some sort of liquid agony. Slowly, the being rose a vaguely skeletal hand to its' mouth, in the universal sign for 'be quiet'. Too afraid of what would happen if you didn't comply, you nodded, and the other slowly drew back and instead turned its disdain towards your dreamcatcher, still softly thrumming with energy.

**"Why did you get this?"** The Monster asked, pointing at the object with a sneer. Your words felt jumbled up in your throat, and you had to clear it before managing to squeak out a response. "I...I was having nightmares. Nothing else was working?" Was this thing the reason why? The dreamcatcher seemed to hurt him--it sounded like a he, at least--so it at least made some sense.

**"Get rid of it."** The entity growled, and with shaking fingers, you untie the dream-catcher from it's position on the ceiling fan wing, stuffing it away in a drawer. You felt the malicious aura in the room wane somewhat, even as the space was cast back into darkness. Once more, the only light was coming from the rays of the moon.

"Who are you?" You roused the nerve to ask, but flinched when the other's gaze snapped to you once again, sizing you up. He appeared much stronger than you, bearing many more appendages; but what _was_ he? Surprisingly, he didn't seem disinclined to answer you. Even shuffling a bit before sighing.

**"Nightmare."** The skeleton in question introduced, without much fanfare. **"My name is Nightmare. I'm your Monster Guardian."** As the other spoke, however, you felt like something wasn't adding up. If he was your Guardian, and his _name_ was Nightmare, then why did you have so many incidents that matched his namesake? He wasn't very Guardian-like, in your opinion so far.

**"Before you ask, because I can see it on your face: I generate and absorb negative energy to survive. Trust me, nightmares are a small price to pay for the superior protection I give you, human. So that dreamcatcher? You'll burn it, if you know what's good for you."** Too afraid to argue, you merely nodded. **"Now, go to sleep. You've got work tomorrow, right?"** You nodded once more in the affirmative, trying to ignore the other's presence as you settled back down into bed. But now that you were aware of him being here--the implication being he'd been there your entire life--sleep didn’t come easily. Eventually however, exhaustion won out, and you passed out to the soft sound of his shuffling. When you woke up the next morning, the Monster was gone, making way for sunlight.

Maybe it had just been another bad dream? Had you imagined that whole thing happening?

None-the-less, you went about your day in a daze. Something wasn't adding up. You didn't have nightmares _every_ night, though you _had_ had problems with them your entire life. And there was something oddly familiar about the Monster you had met last night.  
Ever since you were a child, you'd had one consistency with your good dreams: a skeleton garbed in gold with a sunny demeanor was in almost every pleasant dream you'd ever had. He never told you his name, just calling himself 'your friend'. You'd always had a bit more control over your dreams than the average person; while you couldn't shift the dreamscape, you had a modicum of free will, being able to converse relatively freely with your dream-friend. It was a little silly, and you hadn't talked about him to other people since maybe middle school, but you had come to rely on this Monster for help with many of your day-to-day dilemmas.  
So when you got home that night and went to sleep, Nightmare blessedly absent, you hoped for a good dream. Luckily, you got one.

You woke up in a place you had seen many times before: a meadow with a tree that was half light, and half dark, bearing two distinctly different kinds of apples. There was a soft breeze, grass and wildflowers blowing and leaves rustling serenely. You were propped against the trunk of the tree, and when you looked to your side your friend was there. However, rather than wearing the smile you'd always seen him with, he appeared...troubled?

"Hey, what's wrong?" You asked, wringing your hands together a bit nervously. He jolted and broke out into a sweat. "You met my brother last night, right?"

Wait. What?

"I...Nightmare?" You asked hesitantly, and he nodded. "He's your brother? But...does that mean I dreamt about that happening after all?" The normally bubbly skeleton shook his head, looking guilty. "You know something, don't you? Tell me what's going on. Please."

Your lifelong friend hesitated for a moment, before sighing. "I...my name is Dream. That Monster you saw last night is my twin brother, Nightmare. Together we're your assigned SOUL Guardians. He wasn't supposed to reveal himself to you, but...well." You waited patiently for Dream to gather his thoughts. "Listen...I need to tell you a story, alright?"

You listened as Dream told you his story. It was long and spoken in detail; apparently, nearly every human had a Monster Guardian, assigned to them according to SOUL wavelengths. Nightmare and Dream didn't technically have SOULs, in the traditional sense, and so often came and went with various people. However, they'd both been drawn to you all those years ago, when you'd first been born in the hospital. And for the first time since their race's servitude started, they stuck with one human in particular. You.

"It's rare for a human to have more than one SOUL Guardian. But Nightmare and I...I guess you could say we each do half the job of one full Monster? So we decided to take you on together. He's a little rough around the edges and kind of mean, but I promise he means well! He just...that dreamcatcher was hurting him, draining his energy. He tried to ignore it at first but eventually it got to be too much."

Hearing this, you supposed it made sense. Having two Guardians, in a way, made you feel a little special, which lifted your spirits. But you found it hard to believe that something like Nightmare could possibly be twins with Dream. As if having read your thoughts--and being this was your dream, it wouldn't have been surprising (you couldn't help but wonder if your mind had conjured this space, now, or if it was a domain that Dream had control over)--he responded.  
"Nightmare was different, once. A lot gentler. Quiet, maybe. Loved to read and learn in general...but when the war broke out, a lot of people grew to resent Nightmare. Even other Monsters. He didn't really have a choice but to become the Monster he is. In the years since then, he's done a lot of bad things. We didn't always travel together. For a really long time, he would cause problems for humans and their Guardians, and I'd have to follow behind and clean up his messes. But...there's something about you. He's different, now."

You felt your heart swell a bit at this information. You couldn't help it. What was so special about you, that this dark entity--your best friend's brother--could have a soft spot for you? And if his behavior last night was considered 'nice', how bad had he actually been back then?

You were about to ask more questions, but suddenly you felt another weight settling down on your other side. Looking over, you nearly jumped out of your skin and became a skeleton yourself when you saw Nightmare sitting there. But after a moment, the tar coating his bones melted away, leaving behind a much gentler looking skeleton that strongly resembled Dream. The skeleton in question beamed at the sight of his brother, while Nightmare averted his gaze, cheekbones a deep purple.

"I could hear you two talking about me, you know," Nightmare grumbled, sounding more petulant than genuinely threatening now. It threw you for a loop. Dream, however, just laughed. "Well, why wouldn't I, brother? I love you! Plus, well, you gave our friend here a pretty good scare last night. I figured now was a good time as any to finally do some explaining."

"Yeah yeah," Nightmare brushed his brother off, pulling a book out of seemingly nowhere and opening it over his lap. Dream physics. To your surprise, he leaned into you. Dream did the same at your opposite shoulder. Between the two of them, you suddenly felt a little sleepy, which was funny since you knew you were already asleep right now. But before you could doze off into dreamlessness, you had a question you wanted to get off your chest.

"Hey, if Nightmare needs negativity to thrive...what if he just sapped those emotions from me when I have a bad day and stuff? Would that give him enough energy to live off of, at least sometimes? Then, um, maybe I wouldn't have to have my sleep disturbed so much?" You looked between the twins, who glanced at each other before Nightmare sighed and looked away. "I'll look into it," he said. "I guess it's worth a shot."

Content, you leaned back into the tree behind you; you could feel the life energy coming off of it, making you feel relaxed and rejuvenated. Between that and the two skeletons pressing into your sides, you eventually faded out, shutting your eyes.

You didn't have any nightmares.


End file.
